Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-05-26

against violence, he would not prevent
! her from being carried back. She has at
/ least done wrong by absconding, and II
| she has had any reason to complain OF
/ ill-treatment she should make her appeal
/ from the house where she belongs. Inc
same gentleman tells me that many hus-
bands sell their wives to houses 81 III
fame.
Profitable Poultry-The Care of Chickens.
Chickens will begin to hatch on the
| twentieth day if eggs were fresh when
set, and probably on the morning of the
twenty first day all are Matched ont that
will hatch. 1t is better to leave them on
the nest till the morning of the twenty
second day, taking care to remove the
! old shell and the rotten eggs the day be-
| fore.
II is my practice to feed once before
| taking off the brood, but chicks do not
need food the first day they are out,
! The needs of that day are the warm
| broodiug of the mother-hen to dry their
downy covering and strengthen their Int
tie limbs. Before going out to take OF
the brood, an egg should be boiled hard
and the yolk chopped fine for the first
! feed.
| My method of removing is TO take the
chicks from under one hen and put them
| in little covered basket which the boy
holds close by. Having taken the chicks
| from one nest, | lift off the hen l IN
tend shall have both broods, add her
chicks TO the stock in the bssket, and
! transport them all to a warm, sunny spot
| in the stable floor, where have tempo
rary pen placed with q little fresh earth
spread down. Putting down the old hen,
the basket is gently tipped on its side
near her, and her double family runs out
| to her protecting cluek.
A. hen can easily brood eighteen to
twenty chicks, when it is as warm as 1T Is
after May /, and as the average hatch of
pair is more likely to be sixteen than
more, this doubling up is easy and simpli-
fies the care and feeding. The other hen
can reset or returned ito the pen of
layers.
keep my chicks indoors for couple
of days, feeding them about every two
hours with the yolk of hard-boiled eggs
alternated with white bread crumbs
soaked in sweet milk, not soppy, but
| lust moistened. They won't eat much
the first two or three days, and probably
the mother hen eats the bulk of what Is
given them, but it is important that
what they do eat shall be good and
stimulating, since good start II the
race is of the greatest Importance, and
check at the start means puny, weak and
dropping chicks, stunted growth and no
eggs to speak of at the end.
| Outdoor coops are provided, about
eighteen inches square, like peaked
roof, made of half-inch matched pine,
and / cannot conceive of better thing
for shelter and protection. / have lot
of sectional fencing made of half lath
ength nailed to split Turing, the sections,
being about ten feet long. Four
pieces tied with marlin at the top cor
ners, with little stakes driven in at the
bottom of the corners, making cunning
little pen for my brood, giving tAem a
hundred square feet of grass, and easily
moved every five or six days to fresh
plot. The coop is put down in the cen
tire; a bit of board for their food, and a
shallow dish for water, complete the out
fit; and to this pen the brood is carried
when about three days old. If it is stor-
my, keep them under cover another
day, or if it is warm and sunny they may
be brought out S0Oner.
Thela of the fence sections must be
nailed within less than an inch of each
other, and all craunies must be chinked
with bits of boards, or the little scamps
will get out, and the hen will join them
and wander off.
Pens are made the length of lath,
Just the size of the coops, of such open
work that the chicks can go through but
the hen be kept confined. When the
brood is about ten days to two weeks
old, put the coop-pen down in front of
the coop, take away the fence, let the
chicks run, taking care to move both
coop and pen to fresh grass every three
/ or four days. A little experience will
make it possible to do this without let
ting ont the hen, slowly sliding both
coop and pen sidewise to the fresh spot
| just adjoining.
/ The feeding of chicks is the most i'm
portant part of the business. Fret off,
/ thew should be fed often and but little at
! a time. The yolk of han boiled egg and
/ soaked white bread crumbs of the first
/ two days is followed up by the bread
crumbs soaked in sweet milk alternated
with coarse oatmeal, moistened with
sweet milk, and stiff dough of corn meal
and shorts mixed, stirred up with hot
water and allowed to cool before feeding.
| feed every two hours the first six weeks.
! The hen in state of nature feeds her
/ young almost entirely upon animal food,
worms, bugs, insects, etc, snd as we
want our chicks to grow, we follow pa-
/ ture and feed every day some beef chop
/ ped fine. Trimmings and scraps can be
/ bought for five cents a pound, or the
common ground scraps can be used in
the dough. 1t is good sport to dig few
worms for the brood and watch their an
! tics as they get outside of them.
Fresh water should be kept always by
them, and l use shallow pans, an inch
deep, for this purpose, replenishing the
water at least three times day. 1t used
/ to be an old woman's within that chicks
shouldn't go on wet grass, but this is
proved to be fallaciors, as chicks do
/ better where they wet themselves with
/ dew, and are less liable TO get weakness.
/ allow my chicks out soon after sun
/ rise and let them run all day, On a
rainy day put wide board that is five
/ or SIX feet long in front of the coop, one
/ end resting on the ground and the other
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